Our Name

von Maedler is without doubt, one of the great and eminent astronomers of the 19th century. The craters Maedler on the Moon and on Mars are both named in his honour.

It is a little known fact that in an article published on February 25 1839, in a German newspaper called the Vossische Zeitung, von Maedler coined the word “photography” – well before Sir John Herschel famously gave his lecture to the Royal Society of London thus introducing the word “photography” to the whole world.

von Maedler based the word “photography” on the Greek words “photos” meaning “light” and “graphé” meaning “representation by means of lines” or “drawing” – translating, essentially as “drawing with light”.